Righting Wrongs: Criminal Law Provisions in the Philippines related to National Security and their Impact on Human Rights Defenders The nature of terrorist acts does not permit states to disregard their obligations under international human rights law, including in particular in relation to non-derogable rights.234 As the UN Security Council and other bodies have emphasized, States must, in carrying out their obligations to protect people from terrorist acts and to prevent and suppress financing of terrorism, take measures and use means that are consistent with international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law. 235 a. Vague and overbroad definitions of terrorism International human rights bodies and mechanisms and national human rights groups have expressed concern about the definition of terrorism in the HSA. Human rights groups in the Philippines consider that the vague and overbroad definition of terrorism under the act, with all of its entailed consequences, threatens human rights defenders’ lawful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, and to take part in public affairs. There remains no internationally agreed definition of terrorism. The existing anti-terrorism conventions do not contain a comprehensive definition of the term “terrorism”, nor do the resolutions of United Nations bodies. However, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1566 recalled that: “criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization to do or to abstain from doing any act which constitute offences within the scope of and as defined in the international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism, are under no circumstances justifiable by considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious, or other similar nature.”236 The absence of a universal, comprehensive, and precise definition of “terrorism” presents a problem in protecting human rights while countering terrorism.237 In his 2005 report, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism (the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism) noted that, in the absence of a comprehensive definition, some regional and international bodies link the term “terrorist acts” to existing conventions or treaties, using the acts defined in these conventions or treaties as “triggers” in determining what conduct should be characterized as “terrorist”.238 However, as the UN Special Rapporteur pointed out, “not all acts that are crimes under national law or even international law are acts of terrorism or should be defined as such.”239 He thus emphasized that the use of existing international treaties and conventions on terrorism to ascertain trigger-offences is not by itself sufficient to determine what truly is “terrorist” in nature.240 The UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism considered that at the national level, the specificity of terrorist crimes can be properly defined by the presence of three cumulative conditions. · First, the means used by the perpetrator against the general population or segments of it, which can be described as “deadly” or constitutes “serious violence”, or the taking of hostages. · Second, the intent of the perpetrator, which is to “cause fear among the population” or “the destruction of public order” or “to compel the [g]overnment or an international organization to doing or refraining from doing something. · Third, the aim, which must be to “further an underlying political or ideological aim.” 234 International Commission of Jurists, Legal Commentary to the ICJ Berlin Declaration: Counter-Terrorism, Human Rights, and the Rule of Law, Human Rights and Rule of Law Series No. 1, Geneva, 2008 at p. 6. 235 E.g., Security Council resolution 1456 (2003) , para 6, Security Council resolution 2178( 2014) preambular para 7. 236 UN Security Council Resolution 1566 (2004), UN Doc. S/RES/1566 (2004). 237 Report of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, UN Doc. E/CN.4/2006/98 (2005), para. 50. 238 Ibid. at para. 35. 239 Ibid. at para. 38. 240 Ibid. at para. 35. 35